Podcast Assistant has has a huge response from podcast makers all over the world. They compliment it on its simplicity, speed, and it's price: free! I want to give a huge thank you to the community for using Podcast Assistant over the years.

I also want to thank all the software listing sites that have picked up on Podcast Assistant and incresed awareness of this great (and free) piece of software. The latest, Software.Informer, has been gracious enough to even make it their highlight for a day. Head on over and check it out!

Thank you again to everone who has helped get this software into the hands of podcast producers across the Internet.

-Tristan

P.S. If you haven't tried Podcast Assistant, do it now! Did I mention that it is free?

First I want to get product announcments out of the way, then we can get to other, more different topics.

Dock Clock 3 development is going very slowly. I have been running into problems with the large nober of options. I am thinking of rewriting a lot of the data handling systems becuase I don't think it makes for expansion. On the other hand there will be many more gorgeous presets included!

Podcast Assistant 1.6.3 is being reviewed for the Mac App Store right now. Windows and Linux versions will be available when the mac version passes it's review. This version fixes indentation, an XML error, and a bug that caused a crash when the last edited file was moved.

iFactor is a new product that I will be introducing on the Mac app store and on Windows. It is a multiplication board game that is actually quite addicting. It can also be used as an educational tool. More details about that in the future.

XPrefs 1.6.6 will be released as soon as I find time to finish the Developer Tools page. It will be a place for me to put all my tiny utilities that I make for my development process that other developers might want. For instance I could never decide on SKU numbers for my apps in the Mac App Store so I decided to write an SKU generator. My SKU numbers are generated from a 64-bit hash of the application's unique identifier. I will be releasing that app on the dev tools page as well. Oh, and all the developer tools will be free!

Aaaalright, now to the more exciting stuff.

I have been working on Fragmented Galaxy again but from a different angle. I actually drew up some desgn docs and have a road map for development. I already have a very nice OpenGL game engine set up and it even generates galaxies of stars. (I am adding planets next) While it is only 2D right now, It will progress to 3D when the economy, world building, and data handling all check out.

My trusty preferences solution from Dreystone Software finally died today with the release of Real Studio 2011r2. So I decided to make my own preference file solution that makes plain-text XML plist documents. I also decided to make it free! I call it XPrefs.

Download an example project with XPrefs module included here. (this example also comes with the awesome color well that I made) If you have any suggestions, improvements, or questions just leave a comment!

This new preferences solution should clear up the errors that some people got when launching Dock Clock 3.

I am pleased to announce that the next version of Dock Clock is in the pipeline. Have some features:

New Presets

Use gradients or custom pictures as a clock face

Change the size and color of the clock's nose

Code optimization

Sounds good, right? The update will be rolled out automatically via the Mac App Store.

Around the same time I expect to be releasing Podcast Assistant over the Mac App Store for Mac users and on this website for Windows/Linux users.

It is getting very close to finals week here at Milwaukee School of Engineering. I'm looking forward to going home and resting up. This term was one of the hardest because of the enormous loads of coursework. (lots and lots of papers) Anyways, it is almost over which just leave more time for programming!

I have been thinking about a schedule for these blogs and have settled on once a month. That way blogging doesn't consume my life and I can still let you guys know that I still exist on a regular basis.

I have been very busy with school work for the past two weeks (midterms here at MSOE) so I didn't post on my birthday. I am glad to announce that I turned 21 on March 31. No birthday party yet because I'm waiting until Spring break to celebrate with my family.

Down to actual business though. The next application I want to put on the App Store is Podcast Assistant. I don't plan on adding any new features but expect some extra polish and behind-the-scenes changes. Oh, also expect it to stay free.

On a gloomier note I seem to be recovering from either the flu or a terrible cold. I missed 2 days of school but I went back today even though I don't feel all that great because I have to take those mid-term exams.